I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Today we are joined by Buick Audra. Buick is a
Grammy-award-winning musician and writer living in Nashville, TN. She is the
guitarist and primary songwriter and vocalist in the melodic heavy duo, Friendship
Commanders. Her new album, Conversations with My Other Voice, was released on September 23rd,
2022. The album is accompanied by a memoir in essays by the same name.
Find her online at buickaudra.com, and on most socials @buickaudra
Why do you write?
My writing started in music as a
songwriter, and I suppose it happened because I heard melodies in my head and
had sentiments I wanted to get outside of my body. Writing prose is not so
different. I tend to write memoir and personal essays to tell what I’ve seen,
lived, and felt—and to put it somewhere else. I wrote my memoir in essays
because I had carried the stories around for years and had never seen a story
quite like mine on the page. I’ll say that I write—music and prose—to tell, and
to mark that I was here.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
I’m a musician first, writer
second, so my life is largely centered around my solo project and my Metal
band, Friendship Commanders. I/we tour, write, record and release music, and
then do it all again. Writing prose is something I have learned to build in time
for, and that goes for reading, too.
What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?
Scrivener. When I was starting to
write the essays that would later become my memoir, I had documents all over
the place, notes here and there. When I got Scrivener and was able to sequence
the scraps and move them around freely within the project, the work became much
clearer. And able to be finished. That was important.
If you could spend the day with another author, who would you
choose and why?
Nora Ephron. I love her work so
much, but I also feel like spending a day with her would have involved some
truly memorable food. I would kill to see her order, knowing that she based
Sally Albright (When Harry Met Sally) and her noteworthy ordering habits
on herself. A day in New York with Nora would have been a dream. Alas, I have
her books, films, and recipes, and my Gibson 335-S guitar is named after her.
It’s the best I can do in real life.
Of the living, Miriam Toews.
Brilliant, makes tough work, stays off of socials. I have nothing but respect
for her.
How do you celebrate when you finish writing a new book?
I’ve only written one so far, and
I’m afraid I missed celebrating its completion! I was too wracked with nerves
at the time. I later celebrated the release of the album and book together by
getting pizza with my love. It was perfect.
What songs would be on the soundtrack of your life?
I’m in the somewhat unique
position to have written it myself! I’ve been writing and releasing music for
most of my life, and I’m so grateful to my younger selves for documenting all
of those different chapters. When my album, Conversations with My Other
Voice, was released, some people called it the soundtrack to my book. But
it was actually the other way around. The book was written to expand on the
album. Maybe that’s what I’m doing now, writing prose to support the music!
Flipping the script.
Do you DNF books?
Absolutely. Life really isn’t that
long, and if I’m not enjoying something, I don’t need to see it through. I file
it under “someone else’s interest.”
What is your favorite way to waste time?
I taught myself how to build
guitar effects pedals in 2020 and it’s become my favorite hobby. I don’t do it
as much as I’d like to, but whenever I have a few unassigned hours, I solder,
wire, and assemble pedals. I find soldering to be oddly soothing.
What’s the
most useless skill you possess?
The ability to identify and talk
about various types of cigars! I worked at an old, legendary tobacco store in
Cambridge MA when I was in college and learned more than anyone might need to
know about cigars, pipe tobaccos, and cigarettes from all over the world. The
rub? I’ve never smoked anything in my life. But I swear the knowledge will
never leave my head. Ha!
What’s the one thing you
wish you knew when you were younger?
That what other people think of me
is none of my business—and if they insist on making it my business, they’re not
my people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In her debut collection, Buick Audra revisits events
that have shaped her relationship with her own voice, literal and figurative.
The essays are companion pieces to the compositions on her third album Conversations
with My Other Voice. Between the music and the prose, the audience is given
an intimate look into the life of a woman in music.
Buy the book here:
https://www.buickaudra.com/the-book
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